Chapter Forty – Fate of Ophelia #3
“I love you,” he said fiercely. “You belong here. With me and Luca and my parents. This is where you belong, Andie.”
The euphoria gave my soul wings. It felt as if I could soar into the heavens and back again.
His thumb brushed across my lower lip.
“She tried to convince me that you’d run…
that you had the money and were going to run.
” His tone was full of regret, but it didn’t hurt the way it could have, knowing he might have, for a few moments, doubted me.
How could he not? After all he saw in his job, after the betrayals he’d experienced with Eden, after knowing the crimes I’d committed, and how I’d done just that—run—over and over again?
It was only reasonable to think I’d do it again.
If I hadn’t loved them so much, if I hadn’t been so determined to fight for them, I might have.
“Do you know why I didn’t leave?” I asked.
His brows went up, as if he was surprised I’d considered it.
But he didn’t respond, so I kept going. “This is the only place I’ve ever felt at home.
With you. With all of you. If I left, I’d never have home again.
My heart and soul would always be here with you, and I might as well be dead anyway.
I wanted to be as brave as you thought I was.
I wanted to claim this life and hold on. To claim you.”
“Andie…” It was raw and pained.
“Is this what you still want, Cooper? Me? Scars and all? Past and all? If it is, if this is what you want, I promise to be yours forever. I pledge to give you all the love and devotion you’ve earned every day for the rest of our lives.”
As I watched, something shifted inside him, as if he chose to let go of the guilt or fear or whatever that had clamped onto him. A small smile lifted the corners of his lips. He cupped my neck, pulling me closer so our foreheads were touching.
“Did you just propose to me, Havoc? It sounded an awful lot like a proposal.”
A soft laugh escaped me. “I hadn’t exactly thought of it that way, but I guess I did. I can’t imagine my life without you and Luca in it. I hope you’ll let me say all of that again in front of your family and my friends and the entire town. I hope you’ll say it back.”
The hand he had resting on my lower back pushed harder, molding us together.
“Claiming you isn’t going to be the problem, baby. It’s going to be not claiming you in indecent ways all over our damn town.”
I ground down on him and was delighted to see those soft blue eyes turn a sexy shade of midnight.
“I don’t think that was an answer,” I said breathily. “Are you going to marry me?”
“Yes. I’m going to marry you.” His hips shifted, thrusting into me and causing my veins to ignite and burn.
“I’m going to marry you and spend every morning and every night worshipping you from the tip of your sweet head to the bottom of those delightful toes.
I’m going to treat you like the queen you are. Queen of the phoenixes.”
The kiss he gave me as his words died away was a soft promise that turned into enticing flames.
And in that moment, I felt like I was exactly what he’d called me—a mythical creature shedding its old body and life in a bright blaze of light and love and desire and becoming a newer, better version of myself.
The longer our kiss lasted, the more frenzied our movements became, mouths and hands lunging and twisting in desperation. My nails sank into his shoulders. His fingers sought skin, tugging at the long nightgown wrapped around me.
“What the hell are you wearing, and why won’t it come off?” he chuckled.
My laugh joined his as I shifted off him enough to drag the flannel up over my hips. “Your mom let me borrow one of her nightgowns.”
A shudder coursed through him. “No. Just no. Never wear my mother’s things again or mention her while we’re like this.”
He tore the nightgown over my head and threw it aside.
His gaze focused on my exposed skin, a gleam in his eyes that was perhaps the sexiest look I’d ever seen.
His fingers turned soft, silky, sensual as they slid over the curve of my breast. He leaned in, taking one taut tip into his mouth, sucking and nipping.
Pleasure slid through me. A slice of beautiful pain I welcomed.
I moaned. I didn’t want slow. I didn’t want safe.
I wanted passion so feverish there was no thought of control.
So I swiveled my hips, pressing into him more, and was rewarded with a grunt of pleasure.
I took control, increasing the pace of our touch and kisses, pushing aside everything that had happened and leaving only the emotions of this moment.
The desire. The love. The absolute crushing need that had our bodies ramming into each other at a frantic pace.
Mouths and fingers trailing over hot skin in caresses that seared and pledged.
And when we finally fell together, when I welcomed him into the depths of me, and we found that sweet angle that drove us both out of our minds, nothing existed but us. The singular being we’d forged out of the ashes of our once broken lives.